"What happened?" Looking at the overly excited Lin Yue, how could Yang Ze stay calm? Living in this world with no entertainment and constantly on edge, he was itching for some entertainment. And what could be better than two childhood friends who became bitter enemies?
"Do you want to tell about it, or should I do the honours?" Lin Yue smirked towards Xiao Ruolan, but to her disappointment, the other party had an expressionless face.
"Whatever." With a shrug, Xiao Ruolan just turned around and closed her eyes. Though Yang Ze had a feeling that it was all an act.
"It happened when we were eight..." Without wasting another moment, Lin Yue began to talk about the events that happened almost twenty years ago.
At first, Yang Ze listened with great interest. But the more he listened, the more he felt something was wrong. Without him even realising it, the topic of discussion shifted from their childhood to their pets and their favourite things to do before coming to their practice.
Halfway through her story, Yang Ze even dozed off.
He was even regretting asking her in the first place. Alas! There is no medicine for regret. He could only bite the bullet and pretend to listen.
It wasn't until four hours had passed that Lin Yue finally stopped talking, and Yang Ze was finally free from the torture. He almost shed a tear of joy.
Even though Lin Yue talked for such a long time, the crux of the matter was rather simple.
The three of them were best friends in childhood. But one day, Lin Yue did something stupid and got caught. In the end, she asked both Lin Yue and Xiao Ruolan to testify on her behalf to get out of that trouble.
Unfortunately for her, Xiao Ruolan ratted her out.
And from that day onward, the two of them became enemies.
"..." Listening to her story, Yang Ze was speechless for a long time. This was such a childish thing to do. Becoming enemies over something so trivial, and that too ages ago... He couldn't help but wonder if they were dropped as a child, resulting in severe brain injury. Otherwise, how could one explain such an idiotic thing?
Even though he was cursing them, he had a grave expression on his face as if he was deeply thinking about everything that Lin Yue just said.
"Now tell me, who was at fault here?"
"Eh!?" The moment Lin Yue asked this question, Yang Ze almost jumped in fright.
Immediately turning around, he wanted to see if Xiao Ruolan was listening to them and sure enough... Xiao Ruolan, who was uninterested in the story, was now looking at him with a cold expression, waiting for his answer.
'Damn it.' Yang Ze wanted to cry, but no tears came out. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, there was Lin Yue and on the other was Xiao Ruolan. Regardless of whose side he took, he was bound to offend one person. And once that happened, his future wasn't going to be pretty.
'Think... think...' Yang Ze's mind was working at the fastest speed possible to come up with an answer.
In the end, he gritted his teeth, took a deep breath and spoke in a hoarse voice.
"It was Lin Wan's fault."
"Eh!?"
"Huh!?"
Both women exclaimed at the same time, before looking at him with a frown, waiting for him to explain.
"Ahem!" clearing his throat, Yang Ze began to explain, "Because she was the oldest, she should have taken the blame upon herself."
"I mean, look at the two of you."
"The moment you heard she was kidnapped, you both rushed to rescue her without worrying about your own safety."
"Just for her, the two of you, who haven't spoken in twenty years, even got together."
"But she..."
"How can she even have such great friends like you?"
"Tch... tch... tch..."
Speaking till here, Yang Ze went silent, though deep inside he was praying for the two of them to just accept his stupid reasoning and move on.
"...."
"....."
None of the two spoke, but from the slight curve on their lips, it was clear that they were satisfied with his answer.
The rest of the night passed in the blink of an eye.
The next morning, the three of them first stopped at a small village where they bought two horses. Initially, they wanted to buy three, but upon learning that Yang Ze didn't know how to ride a horse, they decided to just get two.
"Get on." Ignoring the embarrassed expression on his face, Xiao Ruolan snorted in displeasure. Why does she have to carry this little bastard with her?
"Umm." Yang Ze just stood there, not knowing where to sit.
Seeing him being so indecisive, Xiao Ruolan grabbed him by the neck, picked him up like a chicken and then placed him in front of her before leaving for their destination.
Throughout the journey, Yang Ze didn't dare to relax or move. He just sat there stiff, afraid that any random movement would cause dissatisfaction.
But even if he was sitting there, not daring to move, it didn't stop his body from making contact with Xiao Ruolan's.
Her body would occasionally bump on his back, making him shudder. Because she had to hold the reins of the horse and Yang Ze was sitting in front of her, her hands were passing between his arms, through his waist. Due to his height being shorter than hers, it didn't affect her view in the slightest. On the contrary, she would occasionally rest her chin on the top of his head, making his expression dark.
'I NEED TO FIND A GODDAMN TECHNIQUE TO INCREASE MY HEIGHT.' Before, Yang Ze never cared about his height. Even though he was almost half the size of every woman he met, he didn't put it in his mind. He always thought that because his body was always malnourished, his height never increased.
But now...
After being played around like a toy, he had had enough of it. He had decided to increase his height by any means necessary.
Feeling the soft, bouncy touch on his neck, he occasionally wanted to just lean back and submerge in them, but feeling the cold chill emanating from her along with the delicate fragrance, he didn't dare to. Unlike Lin Yue, she had no reason to care about him. Any unnecessary movement and he might lose his head.
----------
The rest of the journey was rather lacklustre. Even though they took the main road, they didn't come across any bandits blocking their path. Perhaps it was because of the murderous aura they were giving off, or perhaps it was due to the constant suppression by the royal army.
Initially, Yang Ze thought it would take them a few days to reach their destination. But due to the extraordinary speed of the horses, coupled with the fact that every time the horses get tired after running, they would feed them pills, letting them run at full speed again.
Under such conditions, it didn't take them long to reach their destination.
"Have we reached there so soon?" Looking at the scene in front of him, Yang Ze couldn't help but click his tongue in wonder.
As far as his eyes could see, there were all sorts of people and numerous carriages on an empty field. It was like an unplanned city with chaos all around. Just from a distance, he could feel the lawlessness of the place.
"The Stonegate city is still some distance away." Xiao Ruolan replied in a flat tone.
"Then this place?" The majority of the people there were women, with only a handful of men who were huddled together in groups, looking around carefully. Judging by the looks of everyone there, they all seemed to be cultivators.
"Probably here for the ruins." It was Lin Yue who replied this time. "Let's go, we will rest for the night in Stonegate city and then plan ahead."
"Hmm.." Xiao Ruolen just nodded in response before following behind her.
Just like she said, Stonegate City wasn't that far. In less than an hour, they were already standing in front of the city gates.
Yang Ze looked at the massive walls, which were almost half a mile long and understood where the name of the city came from.
The walls were massive, perhaps the biggest and grandest that he had ever seen, even by the standard of Earth.
There were massive gates which were located at an even distance, letting the flow of people in and out. Other than the giant crossbows situated at the top of the walls, which were almost the size of a modern bus, there were also many guards constantly roaming around.
After paying the entrance fees to the guards, the three of them made their way in.
"Hiss..." The moment he looked at the city in front of him, Yang Ze let out a deep breath. Every building, every stall, every item... everything in the city was made out of stone. There were blue stones on the roads, white stones on the two stories or high buildings, yellow stones on the shops and black stones on the small stalls at the corners of the roads. Even the streetlamps were made out of stones.
Compared to Yang Ze, Lin Yue and Xiao Ruolan were rather calm. They have visited this place countless times before. Even if their two kingdoms were constantly fighting small skirmishes, it didn't affect the trade routes or tourism in the slightest. On the contrary, it only increased one's curiosity.
The three of them walked around for a long time to find an inn. Due to the appearance of ruins, most of the inns were already full. It wasn't until it was night that they managed to find one.
"Three rooms, please." Lin Yue patted a bunch of gold coins on the table in front of her.
"This..." The man at the counter gave an embarrassed smile before shaking his head. "We only have one room. The rest of the rooms are already occupied."
"....." Xiao Ruolan frowned for a moment before gritting her teeth and nodding in response. "We will take it."
"Take care of the horses." Throwing in an extra silver coin, Lin Yue walked towards the room on the third floor, followed by Xiao Ruolen and Yang Ze.
"You can keep the bag here." Pointing to the corner of the room, Lin Yue signalled Yang Ze to place the bag, which contained her clothes and other items.
"Ugh! I am gonna take a bath." After days of travelling and under stress, Lin Yue just wanted to submerge herself underwater for a while.
"You can do that after me." Xiao Ruolan snorted in response before walking towards the bathtub at the corner of the room that was hidden by an exquisitely crafted thin stone screen that looked like paper.
"What the..." Lin Yue narrowed her eyes before following behind her, and in an instant, the two of them began to quarrel once again.
While Lin Yue was fuming with anger, Xiao Ruolan too had an angry frown on her face. Years after not talking to each other, she still finds Lin Yue insufferable. She would whine and moan even at the smallest thing.
While the two of them were at each other's throats, Yang Ze thought for a moment before stepping forward.
"Ahem!" Clearing his throat, he waved his hand.
The two women suddenly stopped before looking towards him.
"How about the two of you let me bathe first? In the meantime, you can come up with a decision."
"....."
"..."
"I remember that those horses are really precious, right?" It was Xiao Ruolan who broke the silence.
"Right... Right." Lin Yue suddenly nodded in response with a smile on her face.
"....."
"....."
"What?" Looking at the two women who were silently gazing at him without a word, Yang Ze had a bad feeling in his heart, and sure enough, Lin Yue's next words confirmed it.
"Go and take care of them." She paused for a moment before speaking further.
"Oh! Why not spend the night there? What if someone with bad intentions does anything to them?" It was Xiao Ruolan who spoke with a cold face.
"That's right." Lin Yue opened her bag, took out a small bottle that had some grey liquid in it and dipped it in Yang Ze's hands.
"Don't even think about running. With this thousand fragrance, I can find you regardless of which direction you run."
With these words, she grabbed him by the neck and dropped him out of the room before closing the door on his face.
"..." Yang Ze could only clench his fists in anger while gritting his teeth. He just let out a cold snort before walking down. One day, he was going to return this humiliation a hundredfold. But till then, he needed to control his emotions and avoid doing anything stupid.
"I can step into the Pulse Opening realm today." Patting his cheeks, he finally decided to use this time to make a breakthrough.
"Besides..." With a smile, he looked at the screen in front of him. Just before getting kicked from the room, he used his daily sign-in at Xiao Ruolen's talent and surprisingly got an item that wasn't pills.
[Congratulations on sign-in to Courageous(Purple). Received Amulet of Life.]
[Amulet of Life: Increases stamina and internal energy recovery.]
---------------
While Yang Ze was happily playing with the exquisite white pendant that was designed like a tree, a different scene was being played at one of the corners of the Stonegate city.
A figure clad in black looked in the direction Lin Yue and Xiao Ruolan were staying at before taking out a small bird, tying a message on its neck and letting it fly away...